The Fiorina 161 Class C Work Correctional Unit (reg. 12037154) was a human prison colony established on Fiorina "Fury" 161. Its primary purpose was to act as a penal labor camp, detaining dangerous prisoners whilst also providing a large convict workforce to operate the adjacent industrial lead works. The entire complex was built and owned by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.[1]

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The correctional unit was built to house Double-Y Chromosome maximum-risk inmates. The prisoners themselves were used as a source of free labor in a lead foundry run on natural methane that was constructed alongside the prison.[1] Here the inmates manufactured lead shielding for use in nuclear containment systems. The entire complex was powered by an automated fusion reactor.[2] Water was supplied by a desalinization plant build in the neighboring bay.[3]

The facility originally housed five thousand inmates, all Double-Y males, but this number was drastically reduced when Weyland-Yutani shut down the lead works facility. After the partial shutdown, the facility became a low priority for Weyland-Yutani and the only regular communications with the outside world was a supply ship that visited every six months to drop off vital necessities. Despite the potential abundance of power that could be generated by the colony's reactor, its output was dramatically scaled back to the point where significant uninhabited portions of the complex were left unlit and unheated. In these unlit areas, illumination was typically provided when required through the use of candles, made using wax the prisoners recycled from molds used in the lead works.[4] Owing to the lack of qualified maintenance personnel on site, a thorough systems check of the colony's reactor was carried out as part of the supply ship's visit every six months.[5]

The now dank, damp complex quickly became infested with a myriad of bugs and insects, some of which (known colloquially by the remaining inhabitants as "lice") feed voraciously on the keratin in human hair.[6] As a result, all of the remaining men living on the planet have to continually shave their heads and bodies.[1]

While it is unknown how many custodians were originally placed in the correctional unit, by 2179 it only maintained a total of three, consisting of a warden, Superintendent Harold Andrews, and prison guard Francis Aaron, along with Jonathan Clemens (formerly an inmate) as the prison's resident medical officer.

At the time of Ellen Ripley's arrival, the facility had been reduced to just twenty-two inmates[1] who now served as a skeleton crew that oversaw the foundry, despite it having being inoperative for years. The remaining prisoners, who had stayed of their own free will after the colony was closed down, were generally free to roam the facility; despite their serious past crimes, they had now developed a fundamentalist sect of Christian belief and generally lived in harmony with each other, awaiting what they foresaw as the end of the world. With no internal conflict and no means to escape the planet, there was no need to confine the inmates to cells.[1]

The prisoners were led in their faith by inmate Leonard Dillon. Their beliefs included vows of complete celibacy. Until Ripley's arrival on the planet, the religious following had been successful, apart from some minor personal disagreements among the inmates, although the presence of a woman, possibly the first to ever set foot on the planet, immediately began to cause tension.

Following the closure of the Fiorina 161 lead foundry, the vast majority of the correctional unit's inmates were relocated to other facilities. However, a small number of convicts under Dillon wished to stay behind, largely as a consequence of their beliefs. They were ultimately allowed to do so under the supervision of three custodians.[1] The remaining inmates continued to produce lead shielding for nuclear waste containers, albeit on a far smaller scale than before, although after a time these operations also ceased. With only a handful of people left to maintain the sprawling prison, large parts of the facility were simply abandoned. By 2179, even the areas that were still occupied had deteriorated significantly, with much of the prison's electronic equipment (including its video surveillance system) now inoperable.

In 2179, a Type 337 EEV containing Ellen Ripley, Newt, Bishop, and Turk crashed into the ocean near the Fiorina 161 correctional facility. Only Ripley survived the crash, although the heavily damaged android Bishop was also recovered from the wreckage and found to be barely operable. Bishop was subsequently placed on a scrap heap by the prisoners on the colony.

Unbeknownst to the inmates a Royal Facehugger had also stowed away on board the EEV and quickly impregnated a dog kept as a pet by one of the inmates. The resultant Runner soon hatched and began stalking and killing the people on the planet, who, with no weapons of any kind, had no means to defend themselves. Eventually, the inmates and Ripley successfully lured the Xenomorph into the lead foundry and killed it there, first drowning it in molten lead then spraying it with water, causing it to shatter due to thermal shock. However, the plan claimed the lives of virtually all the remaining inhabitants.

A Weyland-Yutani science team led by Michael Weyland arrived on the planet too late to recover the Xenomorph. Ultimately, only a single prisoner, Robert Morse, survived the ordeal at the correction facility. Unable to retrieve the Queen which was growing inside Ripley since she sacrificed herself by fell into the inferno, preventing the infant Queen from falling into Weyland-Yutani hands, just as Samwell Stone and Corporal Dwayne Hicks arrived in the scene, unable to save her. After Michael captured Hicks and Stone, Morse was subsequently escorted away by the Weyland-Yutani team, while Hicks and Stone were sent back to LV-426, the prison and lead works themselves were finally closed and sealed. Weyland-Yutani sold the remaining foundry equipment as scrap.[1]

Some time later, a second Xenomorph incident occurred at the prison, although its origins remain unclear. At this time, the facility was also visited by a lone Predator.[9] This incident was ultimately cleaned up by a force of Colonial Marines led by Sergeant Kaneko.[10]

The Fiorina Work Correctional Unit evolved from David Twohy's script for Alien3, in which the prison was in fact a giant space station called Moloch Island in orbit around Earth. Moloch Island also contained a giant ore refinery, comparable to the lead works on Fiorina, in which the inmates were used as manual labor. This location was eventually incorporated into the final film in the form of a planetary prison colony. At the same time, elements of the prison interior evolved from Vincent Ward's script for a third film, most notably the tall, multi-level assembly hall set, which developed from a vertical library room on Ward's wooden planet Arceon.[11]